Why did Alan Lightman compare Hubble’s discovery that the universe is expanding to Copernicus proposing that the sun was the center of our planetary system?

If Hubble would have gone into athletics or jurisprudence, would we understand the universe as we do today? That is to say, do you think someone further down the line would’ve discovered the universe’s expansion as well?

Do you think Slipher, Lemaître, or any of the other astronomers, should get more credit for the discovery of the universe expanding, or should Hubble get all the credit? And does Hubble deserve all the credit?

Why do you think Sir Arthur Eddington paid little attention to Lemaître’s paper? Did he actually misplace it or did he simply not care about what Lemaître was trying to say?

Why was Eddington so quick to publish Lemaître’s paper after Hubble claimed a “relation in the recent glimmers of the distant nebulae?” (page 242)

Why do you think Hubble made his leap of faith even though he knew the material he had was “scanty” and “poorly distributed,” (page 240)? Was it so he could be the first one to put the paper out?